Richard Kerbaj, Caroline Wheeler, Tim Shipman and Tom Harper
Arron Banks, left, with Donald Trump and Nigel Farage
Arron Banks, the millionaire businessman who helped fund Brexit, had three meetings with the Russian ambassador to Britain — raising explosive questions about attempts by Moscow to influence the referendum result.
Emails by Banks and his sidekick Andy Wigmore, shown to The Sunday Times, reveal an extensive web of links between Banks’s Leave.EU campaign and Russian officials.
They show they made repeated contact with officials to discuss business opportunities and issues of mutual interest throughout the referendum campaign and its aftermath.
In his book on the referendum, The Bad Boys of Brexit, and in another public statement, Banks claimed to have had only one meeting with Putin’s envoy Alexander Yakovenko, in September 2015.
But today The Sunday Times can reveal that the pair also had lunch with the ambassador just three days after they and Nigel Farage visited US president Donald Trump in New York in November 2016.
Last night Banks admitted that he handed over telephone numbers for members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials.
Trump, whose campaign staff are under investigation by a special prosecutor probing whether they colluded with Moscow, stunned the world yesterday by calling for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 group of nations.
The 40,000 emails were obtained by the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, Banks’s ghostwriter on The Bad Boys of Brexit. She is now writing a book with Lord Ashcroft, a former treasurer of the Conservative Party, that covers Russian “hybrid warfare” techniques to influence western politics.
She came forward after her emails were “hacked”. They have now been passed to the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, which is investigating Russian attempts to influence western politics with fake news.
The Sunday Times has also seen a 2,000-word account of the meetings written by Wigmore and has conducted several interviews with Banks.
Last night Banks downplayed the significance of the meetings and denied that Russian officials sought to influence his Leave.EU referendum campaign.
But the revelations are likely to trigger fresh investigations by the Electoral Commission and MPs into the conduct of the referendum and the extent of Russian influence.
Regards, Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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at this rate Ukip can save a fortune by having their meetings in a telephone box, newsletter lists of MEPs can be written on the back of a postage stamp with a felt tip pen and the list of Ukip MEPs who quit will be more than those who remained!
It is clear that Batten’s letter is correct but also the inevitability of Ukip MEPs quitting as there is a very small height to which you can stack garbage before it blows away!
Dear Fellow UKIP Member,
I would like to start by clarifying the position regarding three former UKIP MEPs.
1. Jim Carver MEP
On Monday 28th May, Jim Carver resigned from UKIP. His decision came out of the blue and was totally unexpected.
I spoke to Jim on the telephone that day, and he was not able to give me any coherent reasons for his resignation. I asked him to do the decent thing and vacate his seat and pass it on to the next UKIP person on the Party List.
He refused, and will now sit as an ‘Independent’ MEP.
2. Tim Aker MEP
Tim Aker effectively ‘unmembered’ himself. He has not paid his UKIP membership fee since January 2018, and he fought in the recent English local elections for another party, the ‘Thurrock Independents’.
After I became Leader I, and others entreated Tim not to fight for this party but to resign from the Thurrock Independents and fight for UKIP. Tim declined to do so despite my best efforts to persuade him.
For a UKIP member to be a candidate for another party is in clear contravention of Rule 4.3 a) of the UKIP Constitution, which says that ‘the Party Chairman shall revoke the membership forthwith of a member who Joins another political party (whether registered with the Electoral Commission or not).’ The Thurrock Independents is registered with the Electoral Commission.
Regarding the two above: they only hold their seats because of the sacrifice of time, effort and money by ordinary UKIP members and activists who put them where they are.
As MEPs, they enjoy a handsome salary, a daily attendance allowance of €300 per day (tax-free) when they attend the Parliament, and they will eventually receive a pension. In my opinion, I feel these people have no loyalty to the Party and its members. The decent and honourable thing for them to do would be to resign their seats and hand them back to UKIP. They have both refused to take this path.
3. Bill Etheridge MEP
Recently, with the full backing of the Party Chairman and the NEC, I withdrew the Whip from Mr Etheridge for a period of six months. He may reapply to have it reinstalled in November if he so wishes.
I took the step of removing the Whip from Bill because he defied my instruction to UKIP MEPs not to travel to Russia. Even though Bill had accepted my veto on a previous trip to Russia, he continued with his plans for a second trip without advising me, or the UKIP Delegation Leader, Ray Finch MEP of his intentions.
Bill took part in a conference, in Russian held territory, in the Crimea. Russia is a state hostile to the UK, and I did not feel it was appropriate for our elected representatives to appear to be giving the Russian regime credence it does not deserve; especially at a time when the Russian state is accused of both attempted murder, and murder, on British soil.
Bill, therefore, does not sit as a UKIP MEP, but I hope that he will return to the fold in November.
I am sorry to be the bearer of this bad news, but I believe that the ordinary UKIP members have a right to know my view on this.
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as I recall Godfrey Bloom was chairman of ADDE and it was managed by Bonecci – it should be entertaining to see the efforts the EU will have to make to get 1Million EUros back from either of them!
You may remember Farage wanted Ukip to form a Pan EU Party but the members voted against Ukip expanding his empire and income so ignoring the member’s vote he set it up anyway and put his placeman Godfrey in office!
Defunct Eurosceptic party linked to Ukip asked to repay €1.1m
Alliance for Direct Democracy must repay entire 2016 grant after investigation into misspending of EU funds
The Alliance for Direct Democracy, which was dominated by Ukip, was investigated over misspending of EU funds. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex
A defunct European political grouping that was dominated by Ukip has been asked to repay €1.1m (£977,000) to the European parliament following an investigation into misspending of EU funds.
On Tuesday it emerged that the defunct party is facing an even higher bill, after European parliament authorities asked the ADDE to repay its entire 2016 grant. A meeting of senior MEPs concluded that the ADDE owed the parliament €1.1m in funds “unduly paid” in 2016, because it had never supplied documents to prove that the grant had been spent in line with EU rules.
“Despite the reminders, ADDE never provided the final statement of eligible expenditure actually incurred to the auditor,” concluded an internal report.
Refusing to sign off the ADDE accounts, the auditors found that €299,270 had been spent in breach of EU rules, while the rest was unclear. The ADDE could also not be described as “a going concern” because it had gone into liquidation, auditors said.
In 2016 the ADDE was asked to repay tens of thousands when it was found to have spent EU funds on the 2015 British general election campaign, breaking rules that bar spending on domestic politics. A sister organisation, the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe, was asked to repay €35,000 and later lost an appeal to have EU funds reinstated.
ADDE was found to have spent EU funds on Nigel Farage’s bid to become an MP in the 2015 UK general election. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
The EU began funding pan-European political parties and foundations ahead of the 2014 European elections in an effort to stir political debate beyond national borders. The rules were tightened up after it emerged that Eurosceptic parties had been using the money for national campaigns. More than 40% of ADDE members were Ukip MEPs, and no other party had more than a handful of members.
The former party is separate from Ukip’s group in the European parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, but the two organisations shared many members, including EFDD’s leader, Nigel Farage.
Farage, who is being docked half his MEP salary over a separate dispute, told the Guardian he “wouldn’t know” anything about ADDE finances, noting that he had never been a director. He accused the parliament of singling out Eurosceptic parties: “Ever since Brexit, the whole thing has been vindictive in the most extraordinary way.”
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
UKIP Leader Gerard Batten said: “I have just heard that Jim Carver MEP has resigned from UKIP. I immediately spoke to Jim on the telephone. He was unable or unwilling to give me a coherent reason for his resignation. I spoke to him earlier this week and he gave me no indication of his intentions.
“I asked him to do the decent and honourable thing and resign his MEP seat and make way for the next UKIP person on the Party List. He refused.
“I am sorry to say Jim has joined the ranks of those without honour who continue to take the salary, expenses and pension which they would never have had without the sacrifice of ordinary UKIP members.
“UKIP will continue its fight for a complete exit from the European Union.
Do be minded that none of the many Ukip MEPs who quit Ukip has stood down as an MEP to make way for the next Ukip MEP in line!
During the Welsh Devolution campaign when I was a very active member of the NO campaign and was also trying to clean up Ukip’s act so that they would possibly be competent to lead the campaign against EU membership – something eventually they sadly did more to hinder than to help, with their corruption, in fighting and petty squables not to mention their overt racism and general incompetence – I introduced Carys Pugh, Betty Bowen & Hopkins, founder members of the Welsh NO Campaign to Jim Carver, to work with Ukip.
Sadly Jim Carver was way out of his depth and far more interested in selling umberellas, trying to buy a classic car Carys owned and trying to get me to sell him Medals awarded to Jewish soldiers, who served with the British Army, at below market value!
When Richard Suchozewski was elected as Chairman and Leader of Ukip in Wales he pretty rapidly saw Jim Carver’s self interested shortcomings and dumped him as Ukip Regional Organiser for Wales and replaced him with John Bufton.
I was amused to note today that although Jim Carver is one of my MEPs I thought I’d look at his Twitter Feed to see if he had commented on his having quit Ukip only to find he is clearly ashamed of his behaviour and has blocked me:
You are blocked from following @JamesJimCarver and viewing @JamesJimCarver‘s Tweets. Learn more
I therefore used another account, which I do not post with, merely read other accounts with, and scanned through his recent entries to his site – Here is Jim Carvers:
After 22 years’ tireless campaigning for #UKIP, I announce my resignation.
1./ Jim Carver quit Ukip almost exactly when he first heard the ADDE Pan EU Party , which I understand he was closely linked with, is being ordered to repay about 1 Million of tax payers’ money which they fraudulently squandered amongst other things on funding Farage’s efforts to get elected as an MP!
2./ I’m not surprised Jim Carver quit the EFDD to join the ‘Non Escrit’ MEPs as that will give him personal control of 40>50K extra in expenses that as an EFDD member Farage used!
I expect you will find the few MEPs who remain in Ukip will quit quite soon now, both to gain the extra expenses and to start negotiating as potential EU Lobbyists or for jobs in the EU or even some for jobs with the Tories.
I gather Ukip MEPs are already angling for EU jobs remaining on EU salaries, expenses and perks during any transition term that the EU forces on Britain to go on milking the British tax payers although the majority vote was for an unconditional BreXit!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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it does seem very much as if there is an official cover-up in progress – Just why are the facts regarding the charges related to electoral fraud by Tory MP Craig MacKinley, previously of Ukip, being so obviously suppressed?
C4News, Sun, Times & Mail failed today in bid to Supreme Ct to lift reporting restrictions on legal arguments in courts over criminal proceedings against Craig Mackinlay MP, Nathan Gray & Marion Little, accused of alleged election offences relating to 2015 Election in S Thanet
If it’s an actual criminal prosecution and just straight reporting without attempts to effect the case how is that so? Is any member of the UK public needing protection in their private or even public life over this. Very strange.
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Who Are The Criminals? #Police#CPS or #Courts! #Craig_MacKinley charged with #Electoral_Fraud in 2015 – 3 YEARS later he was due in Court today but ‘Case Postponed due to legal reasons’ WHO is colluding in the crime? ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ THIS IS SHAMEFULL!
Sadly true – The criminality of #Ukip is well documented, even including theft, contempt of court, burglary, fraud, false witness, abuse of office etc. etc. yet never do their cronies in the #police#cps#OLAF etc. take appropriate action – thus colluding in the crimes!
Trial of South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay over election expenses is delayed
The crown court trial of South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay and two former aides on charges relating to false election expenses declarations has been delayed.
Mr Mackinlay, 50, election agent Nathan Gray, 28, and party activist Marion Little, 62, were each been charged with offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
Mr Mackinlay faced two charges, Mr Gray one charge and Ms Little three counts.
All three pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing.
The trial was due to begin at Southwark Crown Court today (May 14) but has been delayed for legal reasons.
A new date has not been set so far.
The accusations relate to a Channel 4 investigation which questioned the local election spend during the Conservative campaign in 2015.
Mr Mackinlay won the South Thanet seat, beating former UKIP leader Nigel Farage into second place, with a majority of almost 3,000 in 2015.
He increased that majority when he retained the seat in the June snap election with 25,262 votes ahead of Labour’s Raushan Ara who received 18,875 votes.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
you may remenber the untrustworthy scoundrel Paul Nuttall who Nigel Farage put in place as leader of Ukip, presumably to destroy it. It was clear that Paul Nuttall was a dishonest and corrupt little oike from many years ago – he was proven to have told so many lies that you will note some wag displayed him as having been in The Bayeux Tapestry, he had dishonestly claimed he was a Professor, had been a professional footballer, was at the Hillsboro tragedy, had been with close friend who had died, had a PHd, Had been to Universities he hadn’t was a lecturer at University, lived in constituencied which he didn’t, lived in an apartment he found in an estate agents window etc. etc. etc.
Finally after this blog had exposed him and he became exposed by the media and the butt of jokes around the internet and had led Ukip to total catastrohpy in an election he was forced to resign as leader – he lacked the integrity even to resign his seat as he no doubt enjoyed the level of income he could never expect to actually earn in the real world.
Still he and his cronies befoul the British body politic!
Paul Nuttall is no longer UKIP leader but is still an MEP on £80k per year. His voting record though since the Brexit vote is the 4th worst in the EU (42%). He wasn’t in Brussels on Monday but was there (until 2pm) Tuesday where he told me “I won Brexit…I’m worth every penny.”
Fellow #NorthWest#MEP#Louise_Bours hasn’t spoken in @Europarl_EN since Feb 2016! Minimal activity as an elected rep, yet she employs FIVE full time members of staff. What are these people doing on her behalf, apart from keeping their seats warm?
Whether she fails to attend because the odious liar #Paul_Nuttall effectively gave her the #MEP job or out of embarrassment at her association with the creepy little con man is hard to tell.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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As Amber Rudd desperately tries to present a kinder, gentler public face after the Windrush scandal, Mandrake can reveal the home secretary has been accepting donations from a former UKIP supporter. The latest register of members’ interests shows she has been in receipt of £10,000 from Christopher Mills, once a generous donor to UKIP, where he served as business spokesman and a treasurer. He previously gifted £5,000 to Rudd via his company, Growth Financial Services.
Mills, who makes the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £317 million, was a Tory backer before becoming involved with Nigel Farage’s outfit. Perhaps Rudd would do well to ponder the advice she received from the great David Lammy in his excoriating attack on her in the Commons: “If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.”
Nudes values
Mandrake believes that it is time Nigel Farage granted an interview to The New European. Alas, no amount of teasing on Twitter over the past week could tempt Farage to talk to a journalist who isn’t employed by one of his personal friends, such as Sir David Barclay – the co-owner of the Telegraph – or Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Sun.
So I texted the press contact that came up for Farage on his MEP website to see if we could at least discuss the idea. I received an unnerving reply that put me off my lunch. Before I tell you what it was, I must first explain the contact on his website is given as Annabelle Fuller. She was once Farage’s press officer and mistress, but has long since chosen to vacate both positions. Annabelle has explained to me that the number I had texted now belongs to a cheeky 15-year-old living in the Midlands. “I’ve repeatedly told Nigel to take that number and my email off his website,” she adds, wearily. Methinks the reply I received may well galvanise her former lover into action.
“Nigel can’t talk to you now,” the text read. Mandrake Locates Farage: “He is tied up on the bed in pink fluffy handcuffs.” …
It is also worthy of note as Tim Walker started his article for this pro EU ‘New EUropean’ comic with an article on Boris Johnson – do be minded of a Tweet of mine today:
Interesting when you appreciate olygarchs are not created in #Russia without the approval of their modern day #Tsars that it seems #Aleksander_Temerko, probably backed by #Putin & #FSB would seem to be a financial backer of #Boris_Johnson of OUR #FO!
In view of #Russia‘s apparent #FSB sponsored contributions in #Britain‘s electoral process is it not time we CEASED providing candidates & MPs with full unredacted #electoral_rolls as we currently do, thus providing security material to #Russian sponsored candidates!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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Hillarious – I gather #Ukip have been begging the #EU to keep them employed during #BreXit transition as experts on #UK EU interface & want to act as advisors & go betweens with the #British Embassy – You couldn’t make it up!
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Ukip must be so proud of their new leader and his ability to drag the party into the extremist racist gutter he has inhabited for so many years:
One should not be too surprised at his extreme views about other people’s superstitions and his vituperative language and behaviour as he is married to a Phillipino, who was most probably brought up under the guidance of Cardinal Sin and extreme catholic superstitions – be minded just how beset the Phillipines have been with terrorism, rivalries and massacres between the superstitions of the two main cults on the islands catholics and muslims!
The hatred that has been bred into much of mankind by the various Bronze Age superstitions they have invented is an omni-present hang on of the barbarism of past cults – some, like Batten, would seem to struggle with their chosen superstition and have much in common with the barbarism of Islamic extremists that they themselves find it impossible to move on and rise above it.
In other sectors of society both hatred of islam & judaism as with the ill educated knuckle draggers that gravitate in ignorance to Socialism & the Labour Party!
There has always been a claque of extremism in British politics be it founded on superstitions jealousies or nationalism – Ukip nowaqdays merely fills in the cracks in the gutter along with the rump politics of Mosley, Nazi, SNP, New Britain, BNP and the like.
UKIP Endorses Tommy Robinson
The remaining membership of that motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers otherwise known as UKIP has recently agreed that their interim leader Gerard Batten would hold the post permanently. Batten has now declared that the Kippers are no longer in financial trouble, although exactly how this has been achieved is not told. But what is clear is that the party needs new members, and needs them quickly.
I em not a racialist, but, und zis is a big but …
At next month’s local elections, UKIP will not stand candidates in many contests. The party is expected to be all but wiped out after results have been declared, not helped by a series of defections and resignations along the way. Worse, the far-right has been making inroads into UKIP support. So Adolf von Batten has decided to cosy up to them, although perhaps he should read the party’s rules first.
These state “Membership is not available to anyone who is or has previously been a member of the British National Party, the National Front, the UK First party, the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party, British People’s Party and the Britain First Party (or any other parties or organisations later added to the proscribed list). Any applications made from people who are or have been members of these organisations will be refused, and any subscriptions collected will be refunded. By making an application for membership, the applicant certifies that he is not and has never been a member of either of these parties”. So what has Batten’s response been?
Simples. He has decided to cosy up to Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. Lennon brings a considerable following to the table, but he also has significant baggage: founder of the EDL, a criminal record which includes convictions for violence and fraud, and an ability to be highly economical with the actualité.
None of this appears to have fazed Batten, who has given Lennon his endorsement by sitting down for an interview, the culmination of his own long march towards intolerance, typified by assertions such as “A substantial ‘majority’ know multiculturalism has failed. A multi-racial society works where all share a common loyalty to their nation and its institutions, political & legal etc. But multiculturalism means competing groups with different agendas”. Loyalty. Isolating the disloyal. But not Jews. Yet.
Who might be “disloyal”? Ah, but he has an answer to that, too: “‘Grooming gangs’ is a euphemism for sex slavery, practiced on ‘Kaffir’ girls who are considered less than human & fair game. Justified by the perpetrators because the teachings of the sex predator & sadist who invented their religion”. Inflammatory hate speech, as well.
Who does he follow in such matters? “This talk by Mark Steyn is absolutely brilliant as a critique of modern Britain. It’s nearly half an hour but well worth listening to”. Steyn is another bigot, who claims that everyone in Europe will soon be living in a continent he calls “Eurabia”. Steyn, who likes to talk about “breeding”, falls back on the same excuse as Lennon: “My book isn’t about what I want to happen but what I think will happen”.
Only telling it like it is. Not racist, because Islam is a religion, innit? It’s only “the truth”. Some of their best friends are brown and black. And Jewish.
UKIP is now heading inexorably to the irrelevance of the far-right fringe. Good thing too.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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Ukip-vs-EUkip 